Olive Peterson

Olive Stone Avery Peterson (January 20, 1898 – February 10, 1965) was an American bridge player and teacher from St. Davids, Pennsylvania, on the Philadelphia Main Line.

Peterson was born in Cincinnati and moved to Indiana as a child. In 1925, she moved to Philadelphia, and was one of several strong bridge players based in the city. She was the "chief assistant" of Milton Work, an extraordinarily successful lecturer and writer on the game (and sometimes called its "Grand Old Man"), when she developed a partnership with young Charles Goren. Goren "became Mr. Work's technical assistant by the end of the decade".

Peterson and Work conducted a 36-day bridge cruise on the ocean liner Carinthia to the North Cape, Norway, and Russia in 1933. After he died in June 1934, Peterson assisted Goren "especially at bridge teachers' conventions"; "in seminars for 35 years".

Peterson and Maud Zontlein were the first winners of the Whitehead Trophy in 1930, the national championship for women pairs that continues as the Whitehead Women's Pairs (North America-level in the ACBL). With different partners she won again in 1932 (Mrs. Jay Jones) and 1945 (Peggy Golder), placed second in 1935 (Doris Fuller). In the Hilliard Mixed Pairs, then the premier tournament for mixed pairs (male–female), she was 1942 runner-up with John R. Crawford and 1943 winner with Goren. In women teams-of-four, she was a winner in 1938 and 1942, a runner-up four times from 1948 to 1954 – perhaps in partnership with Peggy Golder/Solomon from 1942 onward (Women's Board-a-Match Teams). In mixed teams, she was a winner four times from 1940 to 1944 and a runner-up in 1952 (Master Mixed Teams). She was Master Individual runner-up in 1942; women were winners only twice, runners-up only twice, in thirty renditions before that individuals championship was discontinued.

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